CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Freddie Kitchens isn’t making much of getting to call plays against the team that fired him after one season as head coach.
Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett is away from the team after testing positive for COVID-19, elevating Kitchens, who is the team’s tight ends coach, to take over play calling Sunday night.
“That’s kind of ironic, but really it’s the next game,” Kitchens said on a Zoom video conference with reporters in New York Friday. “It truly is just the next game.”
Kitchens went 6-10 in his only season as Browns head coach, one that did not meet expectations.
Both the Giants and Browns are fighting to secure playoff spots. Despite their 5-8 record, New York trails the Washington Football team by one game in the NFC East while the 9-4 Browns lead the AFC Wild Card race and can move closer to ending the league’s longest playoff drought with a victory.
“There’s a lot of guys that were there when I was there, but there’s also a significant number that aren’t,” Kitchens said. “Of course, the ones that are there I know a little bit more about than I would if I wasn’t there. So, I don’t know that you gain a tremendous advantage.”
Kitchens complimented Baker Mayfield, who has thrown 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions this season while completing 62.3% of his passes to become the first quarterback in franchise history to throw for over 10,000 yards in his first three seasons combined.
“The biggest thing that Baker’s doing a great job of is protecting the football, and that’s where it starts at that position,” Kitchens said.
Kitchens didn’t say if it will be Daniel Jones or Colt McCoy under center Sunday night.
“I don’t even pretend to have the answer to that,” Kitchens said.
He was just as vague when asked if he plans to have any “wrinkles” for his former team.
“You really think we would talk about that right now?” Kitchens said. “No, nothing’s changing with our offense. Our offense is our offense and we’ll just try to execute on a consistent basis.
“I just try to the best of my ability to put players in position to make plays, and then it’s up to them.” .
Kitchens and the Giants look to keep whoever is at quarterback upright against Myles Garett and the Browns’ defensive front.
Jones has been sacked 37 times while McCoy has been brought down twice in three games this season.
“You want to make sure you kind of have a plan for their good players and you offensively can play to your strengths and maybe some of their weaknesses, which I don’t know how many weaknesses they have – not too many,” Kitchens said. “You do that on a weekly basis no matter who you’re playing. I don’t think anything’s changing this week just because it’s Cleveland and just because I was there last year.”